Every Thursday after school, Geometry teacher Julie Gross waits for students to stroll in and start plucking their guitar strings. At Guitar Club, members practice, show off and have fun with their acoustic and electric instruments.
“I’ve been in Guitar Club since day one, the first year Legacy opened. Working on my fourth and last year now,” senior Zack Strong said. “I thought it would be cool to learn the guitar a while ago, and have been playing for six years now.
Strong believes time and practice constitute key elements to mastering the guitar, although not everyone in the Guitar Club has played for as long as Strong.
“I’ve been playing the guitar for two years now, and coming to the Guitar Club for about a year,” junior Josh Garrison said. “Playing the guitar chills you out. It’s really awesome.”
Even though several seniors left the Guitar Club after graduation last year, the club still has a blast sharing their music and guitars and looking for new members–preferably ones that don’t mind the noise level.
“My kids play guitars at home, so the loudness doesn’t bother me,” Mrs. Gross said. “Our goal is to be able to get together and perform the same song later in the year.”
Due to its difficulty level, the genre of “Heavy Metal” is the most preferred by the majority of the club. Amplifiers are brought in and connected to the guitars to get into the “real spirit” of metal.
“I like playing heavy metal because it’s the hardest kind for me to play, and it really takes a lot of practice to master it,” Garrison said.
Mixed with heavy metal guitars, senior Randy Streeter’s favorite genres range anywhere from classical to pop.
“I like every kind of genre, but metal and classical are my favorite to play,” Streeter said. “Metal is fun to jam to, while classical has a real elegant, musical sense to it.”
The Guitar Club always welcomes new members, whether they have the ability to play the guitar or not.
“I think learning the guitar would be a good skill to have,” freshman Hunter Sampson said. “It will be fun to play and to learn new songs once I get the hang of it.”
According to Strong, the time taken to learn the guitar pays off, whether it’s having fun with friends while strumming, impressing a girl, or making a little extra cash.
“I was in Las Vegas with my family once and accidentally earned about $100 playing the guitar,” Strong said. “I was just standing there on a street corner playing because we were walking around and people just kept giving me money. It was a cool experience.”
